CR spoke with asylum seeker Hanes

Hanes

Around the world asylum-seekers increased by 20% in 2011 and the UK
received the seventh highest number of requests worldwide, having received
25,500 in 2011. Amongst those requests are many who are refused, but not
sent back. Helping to tackle the consequences and problems connected to this
on a number of levels is
Boaz Trust, a Christian organisation serving destitute asylum seekers in
Greater Manchester. Cross Rhythms spoke with its founder and Hanes, one of
the numerous seekers who end up destitute in the UK, to hear his story.

Cross Rhythms: What does Boaz do?

David: Boaz Trust was set up in 2004, to address the problem of
destitution amongst asylum seekers, so that's people who've been refused
asylum and not sent back. They're left basically with no access to public
funds, no benefits, no right to work and nowhere to live. We accommodate as
many of them as we can and support them in any way that we can with
advocacy, some legal support and feeding, but it's just in the Manchester
area.

Cross Rhythms: You work with your clients through three stages;
catch, hold and release. Can you explain a bit more about each of those
sections?

David: At the moment we're accommodating 68 people in houses, people's
homes and in a night shelter and there are about 90 odd on the waiting list
and some have been on there for a long time. That's a big number, so we have
to make sure that the people we take in are those that are most vulnerable
and that we can actually help in some way. That's the 'catch' part of the
process; those people that we catch before they completely hit the floor. In
some cases, people are on the floor already, because they're sleeping rough,
but they're right at the bottom so we catch them and the initial period is
just getting them settled in and making sure they've got access to a doctor
and the medical stuff that they need.

Then we look at what we're going to do with them in that hold phase while
we've got them. We'd like to be able to release everybody within a year,
into something better than what they've got, but often that's not realistic.
During the hold phase, it's looking at the cases, seeing if they've got a
solicitor, if not, then using your own solicitor to help them; helping them
to get the evidence for their fresh claim to be put in and all of the things
around the life that they're leading, because they have nothing to do during
the day, so finding volunteer opportunities for them and training courses;
anything that will give them something meaningful to do in that time.

Then release, hopefully, is when they get their papers to stay in the
country. In some cases there may be other alternatives; they may well be
able to go and live with a friend; they may be able to go and stay with a
relative they've found in this country. On a couple of occasions, we've had
to say we've had you a long time, you haven't helped yourself very much, you
need to go and find something else for yourself, but that's the worst case
scenario.

Cross Rhythms: What made you come to the UK?

Hanes: From the history, the UK is for every different people, the home
of protection. That is what I think and the United Kingdom is safe place to
come to live from persecution, from bad treatment from Ethiopian government
or from different African countries. That was my dream to come and live
here.

Cross Rhythms: Why did you move from Ethiopia?

Hanes: Ethiopia has a long history. We as a community, as our own people,
we are discriminated against, as a nation even. I am
personally political activity on the Animal Liberation Front, my family, my
father was imprisoned, tortured and killed. They finally come to me,
they detain me, torture me and I escape, because of my political view, or
activity.

Cross Rhythms: What was going through your mind at that point,
just before you escaped?

Hanes: I'm thinking to be in a safe
place, to save my life, because it's the most precious thing is life. I'm
not thinking about anything, from Ethiopia to live like anybody.

Cross Rhythms: When you got to the UK, what was it like?

Hanes: I'm very happy that British people are very generous, but when it
came to government, we came here to seek asylum, we didn't get any
protection. We left in destitution on the street.

Cross
Rhythms: Where were you sleeping?

Hanes: My case was refused
in 2004 and then the Boaz Trust looking around the city, just homeless
people, especially asylum seekers, they pick me from Piccadilly train
station in Manchester. They gave me a house and food and different things to
survive. Someone had told me about Boaz Trust before, but I didn't contact,
I didn't know their office, but I hope I can get the place to contact them.
At one moment, they find me at that time by chance.

Cross Rhythms: How has the Boaz Trust helped you?

Hanes: It is very difficult to put in a small easy way, its very
difficult for me, because Boaz Trust has completely changed my life. I would
not be here without them. Especially, I don't have any idea about what to do
with my case. I was refused, I had to go home, they can deport me, but Boaz
Trust helped me with that; to find the legal people, to set out my case.
Today I've right to permit paper to live in this country, that's the kind of
thing, the main first thing, accommodation. In this country, you know, it's
very cold. They helped to provide me with accommodation, for food, to get
access to the health.

Cross Rhythms: Your claim to stay in
the UK took a long time didn't it? Tell me what happened.

Hanes: It almost took 10 years to get permit paper, but I claim for fresh
claim in 2009. First I was detained by Home Office to deport me to Ethiopia.
Then the Boaz Trust helped me; they processed my case through different
legal system. Then my fresh claim was accepted. After my fresh claim was
accepted, in two weeks time, I received a letter from the Home Office saying
that I can remain indefinitely in this country. That is what I received in
2011, in August, after six months of hardly hearing anything from them and
waiting while my solicitors continue writing. Finally, after three years,
they only send my permit paper and still my solicitor is fighting with that
case.

Cross Rhythms: What are you doing now? Are you still staying with
the Boaz Trust? Or do you have your own place? Do you have your own job?

Hanes: I can say now that I am still destitute because I have only got a
paper. I don't have any benefits. My benefits have not yet started. I don't
have any national insurance. My support is limited. They told me that I
could live in accommodation; so still, Boaz Trust is helping me to sort out
this problem.

David: One of the things we find is that when people
get their papers, they think this is wonderful; this is the end of all my
troubles and in fact its not, because the system is not set up to really
help people who have got their refugee status. They just go into the
mainstream system, but sometimes it takes forever. Without National
Insurance Number, then you can't get a job, you can't get benefits; so until
that comes, you're stuck.

Dave Smith, Founder and Director of Boaz with Hanes

If you're in asylum accommodation, then you're given four weeks to get
out from the time you get your letter, saying you've got your leave to
remain and then you have to get housing, so you have to go through a housing
process, but without a National Insurance Number you won't get anything, so
that's absolutely key. Sometimes we've even found three or four people
who've got their papers and their name has been spelt wrong, so then they
have a choice; do I send it back and then wait months and months more, with
nothing, or do I just accept the wrong name and pretend to be the wrong
person as it were in order to get the benefits? There are some really big
problems when people actually get into that integration period.

With Hanes, he's really helped himself over the last few years, because
he's volunteered all over the place. He's done sponsored runs for us, he's
done all sorts of things to keep himself busy and to get himself educated
during that time, but if you're here for 10 years and you've got nothing on
your CV, because you're not allowed to work and you're not allowed to study,
all sorts of things you can't do and then it's really difficult when you
actually get your papers; so big big problems.

Hanes: To add to that point, when you receive a paper they send you
letters saying that your house, your contract, your benefits are terminated,
but they don't give you any information of where you have to go. That is a
main problem we are facing now. I've got a paper but where can I go for
housing or for benefits? So I'm back again to Boaz Trust. They are doing the
same thing again and helping me. I have a paper but I am still destitute
because I don't have any information.

Cross Rhythms: Because of this big problem, does the Boaz Trust
try and fix this problem, by writing to MPs?

David: Yeah. I think it was Jim Wallace, the author, who said if you keep
fishing the bodies out of the river, there comes a time when you ask the
question who's chucking them in. I think, you know, Christian organisations
tend to be very good at putting on a sticking plaster and helping people,
but we're not very good at asking the questions; why is it like this?

There's a whole social justice issue, as well as social action issue and
so its really important to challenge things where they're wrong; to praise
people when they're doing things right, like I say the UK BA are improving
the way that they do things; but often it's actually government policy
that's the problem. You have to challenge that. We're members of a thing
called 'Still Human Still Here', which is a coalition of about 50
organisations like 'Refugee Action', 'Refugee Council', 'Children's
Society', 'Barnados', 'Amnesty' and all sorts of groups, working around
issues of trying to get things much more fair within the system.

We're engaging with the UK Borders Agency, saying we think this is wrong;
when it comes to country reports, often they have the wrong information, so
when the judges are making decisions and the case owners are making
decisions, then they get things wrong, because the country information is
wrong. That needs to be challenged.

You don't have a solicitor at the beginning of the process and that's
often where the mistakes happen, right at the beginning when you go to your
initial interview. If you haven't been briefed by a solicitor and
particularly if you come from a country, for example where women are raped,
as an instrument of war, somewhere like the Congo, you may be multiply raped
and then you're supposed to tell that to somebody within the first week of
coming into this country where you don't know anybody and it's somebody in
uniform that's interviewing you and somebody in uniform that did it to you.
They expect you to tell them all of that. It just doesn't happen. It comes
out then at a later stage, at the appeal stage and the judge, or Home Office
will turn around and say, 'Well you didn't say that in the first place,
you're lying. You're making it up because we refused you'.

We're challenging those sorts of things and saying this isn't right. The
system itself needs completely overhauling and the fact that so many people
who win on appeal, demonstrates that the original decisions are often wrong.
I think that the vast number of people who claim asylum here, have a good
reason for being here.

Cross Rhythms: Since you did an
interview here last year, what's changed within the Boaz Trust?

David: We've got another house, so I think we're up to 10 houses now.
We're looking after more people, we've improved our infrastructure. We're
doing a lot of stuff around women being victims of torture and access to
counselling. I think we've improved what we're doing a great deal and the
situation has actually got more difficult in some ways because some of the
people that have been here a long time are liable to detention.

We had one lady deported to Pakistan from one of our houses and we've had
three or four people in detention in the last few months and the amount of
mental health problems that we're seeing has gone up quite considerably. A
lot of people that have got quite severe depression and real problems with
schizophrenia and stuff like that and we're not really able to deal with
that so that takes up a lot of time, which we'd rather be spending on other
stuff if we could.

Cross Rhythms: You mentioned last year
that you'd like to employ a solicitor. Has that happened?

David: Yeah, it has, it's amazing. I can't remember quite where we were
last year, but we got a donation from some supporters, who basically gave us
�20,000 from a slightly larger donation to do just that and we have. There
was a barrister who was working with us voluntarily and he's now working for
a law firm in Coventry and he comes and works with us one day a week and
does interviews in the office and then the second day he works in his firm
and he's going to keep on with that. We're going to have to look for more
funding, but when it runs out, there will be other sources and his firm is
actually going to fund him to do a day a week with us, so that's great. It
just means then, that there's a chance of people being able to move on.

We did a great job with a couple that we had; we don't normally have
couples, but one particular couple from Pakistan have just got their papers
as a result of some of the work that he's done. She was crippled, I mean she
could barely walk and yet they'd been refused asylum, they'd been refused
social services support, so that was going back to court, but they've got
the papers now and its because we've got somebody working with us on the
legal side.

Cross Rhythms: Hanes, if there's any piece of advice or support
for people who are in the same situation as you, what would you say to them?

Hanes: I say to them, don't give up hope. There is a hope here. Boaz
Trust can help many people and can change your life around. My life is
completely changed. I'm grateful for this organisation, so anybody, don't
give up, that is my message.

Cross Rhythms: David, how can
people get involved?

David: If anyone lives in a city that
doesn't have something like Boaz Trust and they'd like to set one up then we
can help them set it up. I'm part of a thing called the No Accommodations
Network and it's all of the different organisations doing the same sort of
thing across the country. We've got connections in Birmingham, Liverpool,
Newcastle and in London; people doing accommodation projects for folks who
have been refused asylum.

Obviously we need a load of money. Our budget was about a �250,000. It's
going to be more this year. Our workers are run off their feet. The support
workers, the amount of work that they do, its fantastic, but they can't do
it all, so we'll need to employ more people and so we're going to need more
money to do that really. I'm not sure what the budget is going to be for
this year, it's going to be somewhere around �300,000, but we could do with
�500,000 really. So if anybody's out there, any millionaires, you know where
to come. Have a look on the website, we've got a brilliant website, loads of
things you can do. It's
boaztrust.org.uk.